Civil Strife
I believe the people in Iraq are much more interested in three meals a day and a future for their children than they are in civil war. But certainly circumstances are inciting emotions on both sides and Iraqis might come to believe that the only way to have that future is to be in complete control of the country.
The Kurds are already pretty much in control of the northern areas, the only point of contention is whether they will share oil revenues.
The Kurds have numbers and a shared history of being domination.
But the Sunni's also have something that keeps them as major players in this game. They have the experience, being the historical administrators of the country.
Each major party has something that brings them to the table and slows the race to civil war.
The question is, will they also come to share another belief? That the United States must leave their country in order for them to attain their goals.
The one reason that the Iraqi's have "allowed" the US to stay is the belief that the United States military can provide security. That belief has got to be wavering in the minds of locals. And with that belief gone, the little support that the US military has gotten will vaporize.
The US can bribe and threaten an invitation from the Iraqi government to stay as long as they want. The US is building new bases and is planning a long presence in Iraq. But the Muslim religion is extremely disciplined and expects obedience to the death. With the populous turned against the continued occupation the current death rate would continue to rise.
With no ability to provide security and a people that had turned against us, what premium per gallon of oil would be paying to stay in the country?
If we left, allowed the Iraqis to work out differences themselves, wouldn't we in the long run come to the same outcome while saving many American lives?
How to Win Friends and Influence Enemies 101
I can't believe that the administration could be this dumb on purpose. At a time when cartoons of Mohammed and new photos of the Abu Ghraib scandal are causing tensions, US Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad and British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw were
publicly lecturing Iraqi leaders on how to run their country.
As a supervisor, I always learned to praise in public and reprimand in private. There is a lot of honor and pride in Iraqis, being one of the oldest civilizations in the world, and this public chastisement isn't going to do anyone any good. Not to mention that many Arabs blame Britain's colonialism and America's support of Saddam Hussein the original problems of their land.
In another faux pas, the governor of Iraq’s Karbala province, Aqil al-Khazali, said on Tuesday he had suspended all cooperation with U.S. forces because U.S. security staff last week used police dogs to search government buildings.
Many Muslims consider it degrading to have dogs brought into their homes or offices.
George Will's Word of the Day
risible:
adj. - Relating to laughter or used in eliciting laughter.
- Eliciting laughter; ludicrous.
- Capable of laughing or inclined to laugh.
Courtesy
www.dictionary.comAs in:
Anyway, the argument that the AUMF contained a completely unexpressed congressional intent to empower the president to disregard the FISA regime is risible coming from this administration.
Health Care Irony
Ok, am I the only one that thinks that
today's speech by President George Bush at a
fast food restaurant talking about
health care savings accounts while
Harry Whittington was being treated for a heart attack was a bit ironic?
Or at least sending out a muddied message.
A Matter of Competence
I obviously have way too much time. Or maybe it's the fact that I have a television set on my desk with cable access. But I do listen to cable news channels too much of the time.
Reports say that a very small percentage of Americans watch cable news. Maybe what's said in these programs don't really matter. It can be a lot of fun to watch, especially when David Gregory and Scott McLellan go toe-to-toe.
But more and more often these day I'm hearing the term 'incompetence' used to describe the current government. From both the right and the left. Targeting both congress and the administration.
Whether it's about the Iraq war clean-up, Terri Shiavo, quail hunting, catching OBL, or forcing out Paul Hackett, people from all sides are getting disgusted with the regular players in politics today.
Local politics moves left and right, and has occasional dust-ups like Tom Noe in Ohio or Arnold's special election in California.
But it's the Democrats and Republicans, Congressmen, Senators, and Whitehouse that are getting accused of stupidity more and more often. I often wonder how this group can make so many bad decisions?
I did get a hint of a reason on a recent trip to a conference in Washington DC. Appropriately, we were in a Senate building.
Expert after expert got up and declared truths that were based on something just said. Not anything based on actual facts or that would make it through a basic logic class. But like a feedback loop, these politicians, lobbyists, and think tankers tell each other the same thing over and over until they come to accept it on faith.
Lets face it. Hillary's not going to be President. Republicans are going to be in charge for a while because there are no Democratic alternatives. Risk taking is dead in the US and being the one true distinctintive character trait we had we're no different than any other country and all that we have left is our hubris, something we ridicule in France all the time. Only Biden is impressed with Biden. Harry Reid isn't really a fighter and isn't giving them hell. The politicians that went to DC for one term to clean up the town are still there and are now part of the problem. And bribes by businesses are destroying our infrastructure as those same companies move all their resources off-shore where they'll be safe, along with the CEO's bank accounts. Why do you think Caribbean banks now have all that money? And we're not going to see any real changes any time soon.
There are a lot of good people in America. There are some really good people. But we seem to have a shortage of great people. It's too bad, we were once great. And more than just competent.
I'm So Confused
So Bill Clinton lies about having an affair, that didn't include copulation, with an intern and there's a full investigation and impeachment hearing. Other than a bit of a distraction, net nothing to the national security.
Dick Cheney authorizes Scooter to leak information that publicizes the identity of Valerie Plame and reveals a front CIA corporation investigating the transfer of nuclear weapons technology, and so far zip. Net to national security, possible suitcase nuke carried into Times Square and detonated.
This has got be blowing the minds of all those alchemists that believe in
the law of "Equivalent Exchange".
Isn't this carrying our Victorian values to an absurd extreme?
If Scalia Hadn't Been Cooperative
Vice-President Cheney mistook a 6' tall lawyer from Austin, Texas for a quail Saturday and shot him full of bird shot.
The victim, Harry Whittington, 78, was alert and doing fine Sunday at a local Texas hospital.
So I guess we know why Cheney took Justice Scalia hunting when trying to sway him on the energy meeting case. Imagine the headlines if Scalia had voted
for revealing the meeting attendees.
A Call to Action by General Wesley Clark
A bit more the New American Foundation panel I attended on Jan 30, keynoted by General Wesley Clark.
Here are a few points on what he thinks we need to do in the future.
Here's what we must do. 
First, we've got to set things right at home. Protecting our Constitution comes first. Country before Party. Congress must fulfill its duties to the American people, not rollover for favors from the Executive branch. We need a full, in-depth, bipartisan investigation of the Administration's bypassing of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
Congress needs to show resolve that the laws it passes do bind the executive branch, whether in wiretapping, humane treatment of prisoners, or the freedom of information act. Moreover, it is time for a special prosecutor, independent of the Department of Justice, to be empowered to investigate the Abramoff scandal, and pursue the leads all the way through Congress and up to the highest office in the land, if necessary. Get it out and get it over.
Then, we have to focus on the principal challenge ahead: preparing our nation to succeed in a 21st Century world where capital and technology flows instantly across borders, where the labor market is global, and where the benefits and security Americans have taken for granted are put at risk as supergiant countries like China, with 1.3 billion people, grab resources, spur their own economic growth, redress old grievances, and naturally pursue their own interests.
We need to reward teachers for their skills and commitments, but the best form of teacher accountability is not found in standardized testing but in the dialogue between teachers and parents centered on the love and respect for each child in the class. And no student who seeks to go to college should be denied that opportunity because they can't pay.
-In health care, we need to take better advantage of modern technology to practice evidence-based medicine, in which treatments and practices are based on statistically proven results — not commercial advertising — and doctors and hospitals are held accountable for their performance, not just by the threat of malpractice but by the day-to-day quality of their results.
We need to harness the innovation of our biotech, pharmaceutical, and health insurance industries better to serve the public good, not just the private gain of shareholders. No child in America should grow up without regular medical check-ups and care — or regular exercise and physical fitness - and every adult should be provided access to the kinds of diagnostic testing and preventive treatments which can slow the onset of aging diseases like diabetes, atherosclerosis, and Alzheimer's. Additional insurance coverage should be directed to catastrophic illness and injuries, the kind that wreck families and shatter productive lives.
And inevitably this will mean transitioning over time from a work place centered, private payer system toward greater reliance on some form of single-payer system to ease administrative burdens and reduce costs.
OK, Maybe Those 6 Year Olds ARE Dangerous
Imagine, you're a six year old terrorist in the Taft kindergarten class. You finally get your chance, a major operation on the NASA Glenn Research Center. You've been in the community for years, a sleeper since birth. Probably indoctrinated in the womb.
The yearly field trip is coming up and you get ready to strike.
Well, thank goodness our Homeland Security Department has taken steps to prevent these six year old terrorists from attacking one of our greatest institutions. All foreign national kindergarteners are forbidden from stepping foot on the NASA Glenn Research Center. Field trips are cancelled, children are restricted to the four walls of their classroom, to be kept under careful surveillance.
WHILE ATTORNEY GENERAL Alberto Gonzalez assures the U.S. Senate that the Bush Administration’s domestic eavesdropping program is a vital “early warning system” for terrorists, another homeland security measure strikes at a local elementary school.
The kindergarten class at Lakewood’s Taft Elementary was planning a field trip to NASA Glenn Research Center. It’s a popular trip because it’s free, because the NASA staff already has age-appropriate tours that fit well with school curriculum, and, well, it’s outer space, for pete’s sake. They’ve got rocket ships.
And NASA works the education angle hard. According to the agency, “A major part of the NASA mission is ‘To inspire the next generation of explorers . . . as only NASA can.’” And of course they talk about math and science. NASA says about 400 school groups took tours last year.
But school principal Margaret Seibel says this year’s trip for Taft kindergarteners — we’re talking 6-year-olds here — had to be canceled due to homeland security concerns.
A Little Over the Top with our Children
This is a news story I just came across.
A Brockton first grader was suspended from school for three days for allegedly sexually harassing a girl in his class. The principal of the Downey Elementary School claims the boy put two fingers inside the girl's waistband last week during circle time.
I had a friend whose child was always in trouble in school for talking. He spent more time in the principal's office then the classroom. When I hear about children being arrested for stomping in puddles, kindergartners handcuffed and taken away for disturbing the class, and security personnel stationed in classrooms in Houston, I have to wonder if the problem is with our children or with us adults.
I seriously doubt if the first grader listed above was thinking anything wicked. If he'd just smacked the girl, our violence ridden culture wouldn't have thought a thing about it. At best he was being affectionate or curious, at worst he was just trying to annoy her and get some attention.
Why is it we're unable to guide a six year old without the incident leading to a suspension and national press. Are we that afraid of being sued? Or have we just gotten that dumb?
The boy wasn't charged because children under 7 aren't recognized as being able to distinguish between right and wrong, unfortunately we can't arrest the adults at the school for being stupid.
In support of our soldiers
I used to run a warehouse when I was in the military. Almost anything but weapons could be written off if you knew the right person.
After the news reports of injured soldiers going without pay because of financial record problems, this news story falls in line. But as someone with supply experience it makes no sense, and just shows the administrative disregard for the men and women in the military.
Army demanded $700 from city man who was wounded.The last time 1st Lt. William “Eddie” Rebrook IV saw his body armor, he was lying on a stretcher in Iraq, his arm shattered and covered in blood.
A field medic tied a tourniquet around Rebrook’s right arm to stanch the bleeding from shrapnel wounds. Soldiers yanked off his blood-soaked body armor. He never saw it again.
But last week, Rebrook was forced to pay $700 for that body armor, blown up by a roadside bomb more than a year ago.We've spent over $300 billion in Iraq, much of that paid out in bribes to failed politicians. But we can't write off a $700 vest for a wounded soldier?
Come on Washington. Lets get our priorities straight!
Bringing a Nation Together
"I come today, to honor the memory of someone that worked to bring our nation together.".
So said one of the most divisive presidents in our hostory at the funeral of Coretta Scott King. Thus we have proof that
those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.This happens just as a new letter from a senior Republican senator blasts a junior senator of the other party. What starts at the top seems to soon flow to the most local levels of our lives.
Constantly in our long history we have allowed ourselves to be divided so that those in power can better control us. Moabite vs Ammonite, English Vs French, Protestant vs Catholic, black vs white, Democrat vs Republican.
But what binds us and allows us to construct, rather than destruct, are those characteristics that we have in common. Love of family, children, desire to better our lives. Can there be little doubt that the huge deficits, lack of quality jobs, and falling education rates we see today could easily be overcome if both houses worked together across the aisle?
We need not the control of the triad by one party, but the various views of all parties working to compromise, to develop an administration that is a true umbrella policy for all citizens of these great states.
Hopefully, the seeds of a new coalition can be planted today. May we remember the life of Coretta Scott King, that wonderful woman who shouldered the burden started by the dream of her husband, and work that hopefully we won't soon forget.
Of course, it's all the Muslim's fault
In today's Guardian.Jyllands-Posten, the Danish newspaper that first published the cartoons of the prophet Muhammad that have caused a storm of protest throughout the Islamic world, refused to run drawings lampooning Jesus Christ, it has emerged today.
The Danish daily turned down the cartoons of Christ three years ago, on the grounds that they could be offensive to readers.
No kidding.
Presidential Powers and Targeted Assassinations
I have doubts that Israel's policy of targeted assassinations work. It seems that every time the Likud has negotiated a peace treaty with Hamas, they've turned around and assassinated a Hamas leader. Now I doubt the Hamas targets were in any way innocent, though there were occasionally civilians that were incidental victims.
But the end result was to keep tensions high and a constant crisis in the newspapers, which was great for fundraising. Both Israel and Palestine are welfare states, dependent on hand-outs from outside groups.
This is similar to the model used by the Family Reasearch Council of Focus on the Family, the ACLU, or MoveOn.org.
Now there is talk of President Bush legally using targeted assassinations here in the U.S. While this may be no more idle academic speculation, with hearings being conducted on domestic eavesdropping it seems to be another tug at the bounds of presidential powers.
Does this really do anyone good? If there is a real and provable crisis, then law enforcement knows they can use lethal force in the conduct of their duties. If a terrorist is not actively committing a crime, then why use lethal force as the first option? But even more questionable is even bringing up the topic in the first place.
In the ever ongoing expansion of presidential powers, is assassination in the US the next line to be crossed? I feel like Robin Williams in Toys, with the walls pressing ever more inward, intruding on my everyday life with blatant disregard for what I think is appropriate. In both the movie and in real life, I think the jealous hording of military power has become an end unto itself.
With voters feeling ever threatened, the Republican party can use these crisis and talk of ever growing and necessary powers to cow and herd the American people in the direction most beneficial to their cause, an ever ratcheting grip on the American people.
Attorney General Gonzalez is not the Chairman, I am
And so Senator Specter starts the hearings into the domestic spying, er, terrorist surveillance program.
This came as Senator Leahy asked that Attorney General be sworn in. In the oil executive trial, it was pointed out that it didn't matter, that lying before the committee was illegal whether someone was sworn in or not.
In more federal news, new
Chairman Ben S. Bernanke is being sworn in today. Retiring Fed Chairman Allen Greenspan is leaving a country heavily in debt, flooded with cash, and with little to no personal savings. And they say he was successful. I'm not sure what a failure would be.
Indications are that China and Japan are getting tired of loaning us money. More US bonds are being bought by Caribbean banks. I'm wondering who's money is behind that. Caribbean economies aren't usually known as powerhouses.
Could that be where so much of the money that's disappeared out of the DOD has gone to? If it looked like no one was interested in loaning the US money, there would be a lot of countries quickly dumping the US Dollar, which would probably cause a worldwide recession.
Follow up to Chris Matthews and Hardball
Looks like there are blog articles all over the Internet about Chris Matthews after last night's comments about Gay Liberals causing the Baptist Church Fires. Added to his pandering to the administration and comparing OBL and Michael Moore, it looks like Chris is using the Bill O'Reilly/ Sean Hannity use of outrage to attract attention.
He's got the attention, but I've got the feeling he's going to keep losing audience. You can't be a man of two minds and attract a single audience.
What's Up With Chris Matthews?
I thought I was the only one that had noticed how awful Hardball hosted by Chris Matthews had gotten. He seems lost, not knowing what he's about and grasping for straws as if his ratings were plumetting. But now I see that political blogs all over the place are complaining about his show.
He'll never be a darling of the right, having once been identified as a liberal. But with his, as Arianna Huffington says, Ass-Smooching of this administration he's lost most of the left as well. There may be a few moderates left. But frankly, I think if he lost David Shuster it would pretty much be the end of any respect that the show Hardball had left.
Friday night is especially horrid. He gathers Tucker Carlson, Rita Cosby, and usually Joe Scarborough for a real right wing fling.
I used to listen to his rants about the ethical concerns of Bill Clinton because of his affair with Monica. But will all the criminal prosecutions occuring in this administration all he can do is brag about how he kissed up to the President at the Christmas party.
MSNBC has followed CNN in making bad move after bad move. In trying to move right, they've alienated members from both sides of the spectrum and ended up with the worst in hosts.
Thank goodness the BBC is getting more and more popular. I wonder why that could be?
Who will stand up?
I just got back from a panel presentation featuring General Wesley Clark as the keynote speaker. From listening to his speech, it's obvious he's planning on running again for president.
I've wondered what difference a Democrat would make since their platforms all seem to be the same as George Bush's. They just seem to think they'd do the same thing better.
But today's news that the House just passed a bill that would take $40 billion worth of benefits from the poorest among us to pay for tax cuts for the richest, I'm really starting to lean towards the Democrats for the next election.
I don't believe in large benefit programs, but when oil companies get $billions in tax cuts and credits as we cut Medicare co-pay payments, make student loans more expensive, and cut alimony collection help for single mothers we're just going too far.
Did you hear the news report on the soldiers that were getting collection notices because they were overpaid $1,000 - $2,000 while in the hospital? Yet we lost over $4 billion in Iraq in pay-offs to local officials. Where are our priorities? As far as I'm concerned, let the soldiers keep the extra pay. Can anyone say they're more deserving to that little bit of money? 6,000 soldiers at $2,000 each (a mximum) is still less than Senator Steven's bridge to nowhere.
We need to look at our national priorities. But until we get politicians out of the pockets of corporations, we're not going to be helping the infrastructure that seems to be in such a need.
The question is, can we trust the current Democratic group to stand up and do what is right? Or would we have better luck with contrite and chastened Republicans?
